For those about to rock we salute you

A few days ago, I wrote a post entitled Are you experienced? in which I listed several things I have yet to do in New York that I consider part of the "New York City experience." I left out two things that I never got to do and never will: (1) Go to the top of the World Trade Center, and (2) See a punk band perform at CBGB.
Today, Hilly Kristal, the founder of New York's iconic punk rock club CBGB, died of lung cancer complications (read about it here). I didn't know Kristal personally, of course, but I used to read his recollections as they appeared on the official CBGB website. And I used to wonder why I hadn't yet found the time or opportunity to catch a show there, especially since CBGB is not more than several hundred yards away from my apartment. Did I feel too un-cool to attend a show in one of the most revered performance spaces in rock history? Was I intimidated by the lo-fi, derelict aesthetic of the place? I once spoke to Matt Thiessen, lead singer of one of my favorite bands, Relient K, over the phone (I was interviewing him for Relevant Magazine). When he heard I lived in New York, he said that he wanted to go back to New York and play a show, possibly at CBGB. Would I have gone if one of my favorite bands was playing the venue?

I'll never know the answer for sure -- Relient K never played CBGB, and never will, because the club closed last year (read more here). So I never got to enter the space where legends like the Ramones, Blondie, Television and Talking Heads made not just music, but history. I'm no punk, except in my wildest, most implausible dreams, and I can't even consider myself a real punk music fan (I don't even really like the Clash). But I've been musically influenced by so many bands who have played CBGB, including Social Distortion, Green Day and many others. Punk rock informs even the music I play in church, which may sound antithetical, but really isn't, if you think about it a certain way.

So tonight, in honor of Hilly Kristal, and in memory of the greatest rock venue I never went to, I'm wearing my CBGB t-shirt to bed. Good night.